Penguins draft defenseman Tomas Galvas with No. 54 pick

The Pittsburgh Penguins took a chance on a long-term project by drafting defenseman Tomas Galvas from Bílí Tygři Liberec in the Czech Extraliga with the No. 54 pick of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft.

Though Galvas played 35 total games against grown men in one of Europe’s top leagues, it’s impossible to profile him as a prospect without discussing his physique.

Standing at 5-foot-10, there’s very little precedent for a defenseman with such a slight frame receiving a top-70 grade (60 on Steven Ellis’s final ranking). Lane Hutson springs to mind, but he has over ten pounds on Galvas and can’t be cited as an NHL success story this early in his career.

Look past his height and weight, as the Penguins were clearly willing to do, and Galvas is a nifty player with a good head on his shoulders.

Galvas is shifty with the puck and has a great first pass that keeps him out of trouble when pressure mounts in his own zone. 

His skating and stickhandling help him extend possessions on offense, where he probably has more potential than his modest Extraliga scoring (two goals, seven points) suggests; limited minutes kept his numbers from jumping off the page, but that could change when he returns to Liberec next season.

Galvas’s clean zone exits are his biggest defensive strength, but he also showed a willingness to actively defend the rush, which would allow him to be a two-way option down the line if his physical maturation cooperates. 

That maturation is the biggest question mark for a player with high-level passing and confidence on the puck. If he can add some muscle over the next few seasons, Galvas has the skill to become a pro defenseman in Pittsburgh.